Medieval And Early Modern Pottery 391
for the most well preserved objects;11 the well on via Sebastiano Satta in Sassari12
(noted in Fig. 15.2); the excavation of Vico III Lanusei; and the group of ceram-
ics discovered in Pula (Cagliari) in the late nineteenth century, among which is
an unglazed olla, most likely produced in the area around Cagliari.13
From a morphological point of view, cylindrical pots and pans are more
widely dispersed than the olle (Pl. 15.1). Between the late tenth and the early
eleventh centuries their bottoms are nearly always flat, while between the
twelfth and the fourteenth centuries they are predominantly rounded. Some
fragments with segmented oval handles attached beneath or on the level of the
rim have been documented for the entire period, though of various sizes. In
the tenth and eleventh centuries, decorations on the exterior, beneath the rim,
were characterized by short concave circular marks—pressed by a finger—in
continuous series along the entire border or in groups of three. In one case,
this decoration is related to short, parallel, diagonal strokes impressed with a
stick on the inner side of the rim (Pl. 15.1, n. 3). A feature of kitchen ware from
the tenth to eleventh centuries is the absence of small bosses applied on the
rim in groups of three or four, which were to become typical of fourteenth-
century pots (Pl. 15.1, n. 12).14 Lids were commonly used, which is evident from
the abrupt, linear end to the blackening they received from contact with the
hearth. Regarding this domestic practice, it is necessary to point out that the
number of ceramic lids documented at this point is not nearly as high as that
of pots and pans, for which reason we may assume that the lids may have been
made from other materials.
Archaeological identification of production sites is one of the problems that
remains unresolved. So far, neither waste from the manufacturing process nor
traces of areas dedicated to firing have been found. It is possible that kilns
were of the pit type or set on piles that have left but faint traces on the terrain,
and thus are visible only with extensive research. Furthermore, the absence
of permanent structures for firing items would have produced manufactur-
ing waste, which, thanks to the low temperatures reached, may not display
11 Fabio Fiori, “Le ceramiche da cucina e da dispensa ritrovate nel ‘canale’,” in Santa Maria di
Seve, ed. Vanna Canalis (Piedimonte Matese, 2000), pp. 43–45.
12 Laura Biccone, “Via Sebastiano Satta”, in Sassari. Archeologia urbana, eds Daniela Rovina
and Mauro Fiori (Ghezzano (PI), 2013), pp. 74–78.
13 Maria Francesca Porcella, “Il fondo Pula e gli affiliati,” in La Corona d’Aragona: un patrimo-
nio comune per Italia e Spagna (secc. XIV–XV ) (Cagliari, 1989), pp. 365–375, chart 643.
14 In Ardara only one sample contains small triangular bosses with rounded corners, which
seems to have served as the prototype for the decoration that evolved afterwards; Biccone,
“Invetriate monocrome decorate a stampo,” no. 14.